Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's Novels

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2014

Written by: Bc. Jana Neterdová

Supervisor: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Bibliografický záznam

Neterdová, Jana. Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2014. 56l. Vedoucí diplomové práce Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D.

Anotace

Cílem diplomové práce Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels je analyzovat roli historicity v románech daného autora a zhodnotit jakým způsobem a za jakým účelem autor zachází s historickými daty. Práce je rozdělena na dva oddíly, část teoretickou a část analytickou. V teoretické části se práce věnuje definování postmodernismu a postmoderní literatury, protože Peter Ackroyd jako současný autor je považován za představitelé postmodernismu v literatuře. Dále je zde definován pojem historiografická metafikce jako označení pro historický román období postmodernismu. Další část práce je věnována Peteru Ackroydovi a podává základní informace o jeho životě a bližší pohled na jeho dílo, především romány. V analytické části jsou rozebírány čtyři romány: The Lambs of London, The Fall of Troy, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde a Chatterton. Analýza zahrnuje identifikování prvků, které jsou relevantní pro historicitu románů a vychází z teorie historiografické metafikce. Zabývá se především intertextualitou a způsobem jakým Ackroyd "přepisuje" historii. Poznatky analýzy jsou shrnuty v poslední části práce, ve které jsou vyvozeny závěry, které odpovídají na otázku jak Peter Ackroyd ve svých románech zachází s historií.

Abstract

Diploma thesis Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels aims to analyse the role of historicity in the author's novels and to evaluate how and for what purpose the author deals with history. The thesis is divided into two parts, a theoretical and an analytical. Post-modernism and post-modern literature are defined in the first part of the thesis because Peter Ackroyd is a representative of post-modernity in literature. Further, term historiographic metafiction is defined as a name for historical novel in post-modern era. The following part is dedicated to Peter Ackroyd, his life and work, especially novels.

2 The analytical part deals with four novels: The Lambs of London, The Fall of Troy, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde and Chatterton. The analysis concentrates on features relevant to historicity and is based on historiographic metafiction theory. It deals mainly with inter-textuality and the way Ackroyd re-writes history. The last part of the thesis contains conclusions which answer the question how does Peter Ackroyd deal with history.

Klíčová slova historicita, postmodernismus, postmoderní literatura, současní autoři, britská literatura, analýza, intertextualita, historiografická metafikce, Peter Ackroyd

Key Words historicity, historiographic metafiction, post-modernism, post-modern literature, British literature, analysis, inter-textuality, contemporary authors, Peter Ackroyd

3 Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury.

Declaration

I hereby declare that this diploma thesis is my own work and that I used only sources listed in the list of references.

Brno, 18. dubna 2014 ...... Bc. Jana Neterdová

4 Poděkování Na tomto místě bych ráda poděkovala vedoucí své práce Mgr. Lucii Podroužkové, Ph.D. za pomoc, inspiraci a pochopení. Zároveň chci poděkovat své rodině a partnerovi za podporu a neustálou motivaci.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for help, inspiration and understanding. At the same time, I would like to thank my family and my partner for support and ever-lasting motivation.

5 Contents

1 Introduction...... 7 2 Post-modern Literature and Historicity...... 10 2.1 Post-modernism: Definition and philosophical background...... 10 2.2 Post-modern Literature...... 12 2.3 Post-modern literature and history. Historiographic metafiction...... 17 3 About the Author: Life and Work of Peter Ackroyd...... 22 3.1 Peter Ackroyd: Biography...... 22 3.2 Peter Ackroyd: Summary of work...... 23 3.3 Peter Ackroyd: His importance and place among contemporary writers...... 29 4 Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's Novels...... 31 4.1 The Lambs of London: Family History Rewritten...... 31 4.2 The Fall of Troy: A Story Which We Need...... 42 4.3 The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Adopting Style...... 47 4.4 Chatterton - The Praise of Forgery...... 53 5 Conclusion...... 60 6 Summary...... 63 7 List of sources...... 64

6 1 Introduction

The purpose of diploma thesis Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels is to closely examine novels by contemporary British writer Peter Ackroyd. Peter Ackroyd is one of the most prominent figures of contemporary British literature. Starting his writing career in early eighties, he belongs to representatives of British post-modern fiction together with Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie or Martin Amis. However, his work is not widely known in the Czech Republic, only few of his novels and works of non-fiction were translated into Czech language. Therefore, I want to examine his novels more closely and since Ackroyd is claimed to be a post-modern writer, the main concern of my diploma thesis will be post-modern features of the novels. Nevertheless, this theme would be rather broad and therefore I will concentrate first of all on Ackroyd's dealing with historical facts, because retelling history is one of the features of post-modern writings.

My main research question is: How does Peter Ackroyd deal with historicity in his novels? The expected result of my research then is that in correspondence with post-modern writing theory, Ackroyd re-tells history in order to convey a message that history in fact does not exist and all historical facts are subject for our own consideration.

The main concern of this diploma thesis was historicity in novels. By historicity I understand historical background and historical information used in the novels in order to give a fictional story a stamp of reality.

As for my method, I started with reading primary literature. I decided to choose a reasonable number of novels which I was able to read and re-read without risk of missing something important. The final number of novels for analysis was four. I decided to work with these novels: The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, Chatterton, The Lambs of London and The Fall of Troy. The criterion for choosing these particular novels were as follows: the topic dealing with historical events and the date of issue. I would like to point to possible progress in Ackroyd's work and therefore I made a decision to employ two novels from the eighties (The Last Testament and Chatterton)

7 and two novels written in the last decade (The Lambs of London and The Fall of Troy). Besides the primary sources mentioned above, I worked with numerous secondary sources. The crucial secondary source for this thesis was work of Linda Hutcheon, namely book A Poetics of Post-modernism: History, Theory, Fiction and article Historiographic Metafiction. Theory of historiographic metafiction presented in these works became a basis for my analysis. An insight into post-modernism was provided by The Icon Critical Dictionary of Post-modern Thought, edited by Stuart Sim which includes relevant information about post-modern philosophy and literature theory. Another source I would like to mention here is Barry Lewis' My Words Echo Thus: Possessing the Past in Peter Ackroyd which contains useful and accurate info not only about Ackroyd himself but also about his work ranging from 1980's to 21st century. Finally, the work of Susana Onega, namely Peter Ackroyd and Interview with Peter Ackroyd provided additional information about Ackroyd's life as well as comments on analysed novels, e.g. The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde. Besides these most important works, I worked with many other sources ranging from books to articles to websites. The List of sources is provided in the last part of the thesis. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts: a theoretical and a practical one. The theoretical part is covered in chapters two and three. In chapter two introduction to the theory of post-modernism and its philosophical background is made, as well as an insight into post-modern literature and its features which are relevant to historicity. Additionally, concept of historiographic metafiction is introduced since this is mentioned several times in the practical part of the thesis. The theoretical part is topped up by a chapter dedicated to Peter Ackroyd and his work in order to see the four novels mentioned above in broader context. To conclude the introduction part of my thesis, I would like to mention my personal motivation to work on this topic and also my expectations. I firstly became aware of Peter Ackroyd's through a literature seminar called Peter Ackroyd's reflections of English Literature which was provided by English Language Department and led by doctor Doležel. In that time I read The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde and I was impressed by it, so when I had to choose a topic for my diploma thesis later, the first thing which came to my mind was this novel. My first intention was to concentrate on

8 post-modern features but my supervisor pointed out that this topic is too broad. Consequently, I started to look for narrower topic. My second subject is history and since it is my hobby as well, I decided to connect English literature and history and research how does Peter Ackroyd deals with history. Another reason for choosing this topic was the fact mentioned above - Peter Ackroyd does not belong to the authors who are generally known in the Czech Republic, so I would be glad if my thesis raised awareness about him at least among other students of English language and literature.

9 2 Post-modern Literature and Historicity

The aim of this chapter is to make an introduction to post-modernism and post-modern literature because Peter Ackroyd is considered to be a post-modern author. Firstly, an overview of philosophical background to post-modernism is provided and its most predominant features are accented. Secondly, post-modern literature is defined and its features relevant to historicity are mentioned. Finally, concept of historiographic metafiction is discussed as described by Linda Hutcheon because it is dealt with throughout the thesis.

2.1 Post-modernism: Definition and philosophical background

One of the features of post-modernism is that it is not easy to define it and there are more options how to do it. Nevertheless, let us start with a simple definition provided by Oxford Dictionaries: "A late-20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of "art"." The departure from modernism plays an important part in different definitions of post-modernism and the author of this thesis considers it to be the basis for her own understanding of it. In his definition of post- modernism, Antony Easthope draws a sharp line between modernism and post- modernism and uses two works of art to emphasize this distinction: Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avingon as an example of modernism and Fischl's The Old Man's Boat and The Old Man's Dog as a representative of post-modernism. Consequently, he points out to differences in the society which are closely connected to the birth of modernism and post-modernism. He claims that modernism was shocking in its, i.e. in the period starting with year 1900 and continuing into 1930's. The society in this period, as he mentions, was terrified of future because the working class could take over political power. Therefore, modernism is closely related to this anxiety. On the other hand, the birth of post-modernism is characterized by a period of relative safety and happiness of

10 the society. However, the outcome of this was a rise of scepticism which is an essential part of post-modernism. (Easthope, 15)

Stuart Sim (Sim, 3) provides another definition of post-modernism as a philosophical tradition originated in France whose "leading figure" is Jean-Francois Lyotard. Lyotard's work The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge published in 1979 is consider an intellectual basis of post-modernism. According to Lyotard, post- modern philosophy is based on: "scepticism about authority, received wisdom, cultural and political norms". (Lyotard in Sim, 3) Nevertheless, scepticism is not something what post-modern philosophy discovered, it is part of tradition in Western thought and it emerges from classical Greek philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche's "revaluation of all values" is also closely connected to post-modernism. Applying scepticism on all aspects of the life of the society leads to the fact that post-modernism prefers antifoundational style of philosophy. Another feature of post-modern philosophy is rejection of authority. Lyotard believes that: "we should reject the "grand narratives" (that is, universal theories) of Western culture because they have now lost all their credibility" (Sim, 3) Jean Baudrillard distinguishes following features of post-modern philosophy: distrust of grand theories, authoritarian pretension and libertarian attitude. (Baudrillard in Sim, 11)

Post-modernism is connected to another term: post-structuralism which is intersted in language and is part of post-modern philosophy. As Sim states, post- structuralism is in opposition to structuralism and rejects structuralist way of thinking. (4) Structuralism, whose representative is Ferdinand de Saussure, is typical for viewing language as "a system with rules and regulations". This system consists of signs and is stable. Moreover, structuralists claim that each system (language) has its own internal grammar which leads systematic operations. (Sim, 4) Post-structuralist, e.g. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Richard Barthes of Jacques Derrida refuses to accept "the overall tidiness of the structuralist enterprise". (Sim, 5) Unlike structuralism with its systems and stability, post-structuralism is more interested in chance, creativity and the unexpected. (Sim, 5) Jacques Derrida introduced concept of deconstruction: "a philosophical and critical movement, starting in 1960's and especially applied to the study of literature, that questions all traditional assumptions about the ability of language to represent reality and emphasizes that a text has no stable reference or identification because

11 words essentially refer to other words and therefore a reader must approach a text by eliminating any metaphysical or ethnocentric construction, etymology, puns, and other word play." ("Deconstruction") Thus the central features of deconstruction are instability, unfixed meaning and puns and word-play. (Sim, 5) Moreover, Derrida claims that communication without problems is impossible because of "slipage" of meaning. (Sim, 5)

Jean-Francois Lyotard in The Post-modern Condition claims that the most valuable commodity in the post-modern world is knowledge which therefore means power. Knowledge comes to us through narratives. As was mentioned before Lyotard rejects "grand narratives" or theories (e.g. political theories, religions etc.), he states that they are rigid and do not change their view of world and history and that they are authoritarian. On the contrary, he praises "little narratives" which are put together by small groups of people, they are heading for a particular aim and do not pretend to have answers to all questions. (Sim, 6)

The post-modern world is also characterized by difficulties in recognizing reality. Baudrillard (Sim, 11) calls our world a world of simulacra, in which we are no longer able to differentiate between reality and simulation. Thus he characterizes post-modern world like this: "an endless circulation of signs from which any sense of reality has fallen away, a world in which there are simulations and only simulations." Consequently, as he claims, the signs become more real than reality - hyperreal. (Sim, 20) This ascpect of post-modern philosophy is important for dealing with history and reality in post-modern novels, as it will be proven in the following sub- chapter.

2.2 Post-modern Literature

According to Barry Lewis, post-modern literature was a dominant mode in between years 1960 and 1990, a period which is on one side marked by erection of the Berlin Wall and on the other side by its demolition. From the literature world, he

12 mentions Philip Roth's essay Writing American Fiction published in 1961 as a start and Tom Wolfe's Stalking The Billion-Footed Beast: A Literary Manifesto for the New Social Novel published in 1989 as the final work of this period. (Post-modernism and literature, 121) However, defining post-modern literature is as difficult as to define post-modernism itself. Consider a definition by Bradbury and Ruland: "Post-modernism now looks like a stylistic phase that ran from the 1960's to the 1980's." (Bradbury, Ruland in Post-modernism and literature, 122) The nowadays literature is described as post post-modernist literature. Nevertheless, as Bradbury reminds, there are considerable problems with mapping the territory of contemporary literature. (Bradbury in Post-modernism and literature, 122)

Lewis considers post-modernist literature an international phenomenon and he supports his statement with mentioning authors from all over the world, e.g. Günter Grass, Umberto Eco, Angela Carter, Milan Kundera or Gabriel Garcia Márquez. However, as he adds the biggest number of authors who fulfil the characteristics of post- modernist come from the USA. Among those belong Paul Auster, E. L. Doctorow, William Burroughs or Kurt Vonnegut. (Lewis, Post-modernism and literature, 123) According to Raymond Federman these writer did not form one united literary movement. (Federman in Post-modernism and literature, 123) Barry Lewis partially agrees with this statement: "the novels and short stories of these authors vary a great deal. However, they do have certain things in common. Some of the dominant features of their post-modernist fiction include: temporal disorder; the erosion of the sense of time; a pervasive and pointless use of pastiche; a foregrounding of words as fragmenting signs; the loose association of ideas; paranoia; and vicious circles, or a loss of distinction between logically seperate levels of discourse. Traits such as these are encountered time and time again in the bare, bewildering landscapes of contemporary fiction." (Post-modernism and literature, 123) So, these are the main features of post- modern literature which are in more detail described in the following paragraphs.

Temporal disorder: Brian McHalle (McHalle in Post-modernism and literature, 124) divides the ways how post-modern fiction can distort history into three categories: apocryphal history, anachronism and blending of history and fantasy. In the first of them, as Lewis states we can observe: "bogus accounts of famous events. Take

13 Kazuo Ishgiguro's The Remains of the Day (1989) This novel implies that a butler in a stately home played a small but significant role in the appeasement policy adopted by Britain towards Germany before the Second World War." (Post-modernism and literature, 124) Anachronism, however, is characterized by using obvious improprieties in terms of details. Lewis reminds Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada and Abraham Lincoln using telephone as a part of its plot. (Post-modernism and literature, 124) The third of these ways, blending of history and fantasy attempts to mix historical events with fictional ones. (Post-modernism and literature, 124) Nevertheless, the past is not the only thing being disrupt in post-modern fiction, it is also the present. Lewis distinguishes two types of dealing with time: kairos which means "warping the sense of significant time" and chronos which states for "the dull passing of ordinary time." As he mentions further, post-modern fiction is full of temporal disorder; this is well described by quotation from Robert Coover's The Public Burning which Lewis used: "history does not repeat...there are no precognitions - and out in that flow all such assertions may be true, false, inconsequential, or all at the same time." (Coover in Post-modernism and literature, 125)

Pastiche: Pastiche in literature means combination of different styles within the plot. This has been used in literature for a long time (Post-modernism and literature, 125), however, as John Barth claims it is especially popular in contemporary literature. (Barth in Post-modernism and literature, 125) According to Lewis, pastiche originates from the overall frustration that everything has been already written and there is nothing new to be invented. Consequently, there are many genres genres being adopted by contemporary writers, e.g. western, sci-fi or the detective story. Lewis believes that is caused by the fact that these genres are ready-made, which is suitable for post-modernism and its attempt to mix different sources. For the purposes of this thesis, let us point out that Lewis mentions Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor as an example of a post-modern detective story. (Post-modernism and literature, 125-126)

Fragmentation. According to John Hawkes there are four greatest enemies of each writer: "plot, character, setting and theme" (Hawkes in Post-modernism and literature, 126) In a consequence, writers of post-modern fiction try to get rid off these enemies, as Lewis observes: "Either plot is pounded into small slabs of event and

14 circumstance, characters disintegrate into a bundle of twitching desires, settings are little more than transitory backdrops, or themes become 50 attenuated that is often comically inaccurate to say that certain novels are "about" such-and-such." (Post- modernism and literature, 126) Moreover, Jonathan Baumach claims that "a story nowadays (...) it's not a story at all, not in the traditional sense." (Baumach in Post- modernism and literature, 126) Among the techniques which post-modern writers tend to use to overcome the boundaries of the traditional narrative belong the following: the multiple ending, e.g. in John Fowles' The French Lieutenant Woman; breaking up the text into shorter fragments divided from each other by space, titles, symbols or numbers, e.g. in novels and short stories by Richard Brautigan or Donald Barthelme. In more extreme examples this is introduced via usage of illustration, typograhpy or mixed media. (Post-modernism and literature, 127) Raymond Federman claims that: "In those spaces where there is nothing to write, the fiction writer can, at any time, introduce material (quotations, pictures, diagrams, charts, designs, pieces of other discourses, etc.) totally unrelated to the story." (Federman in Post-modernism and literature, 127) All in all, the tendency of post-modern fiction towards fragmentation is expressed in Barthelme's See the Moon?: "Fragments are the only forms I trust." (Barthelme in Post- modernism and literature, 128)

Looseness of association. Another technique which post-modern writers use is involving chance into the composition of the story. Lewis reminds The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson: "a novel-in-a-box which instructs the readers to riffle several loose-leaf chapters into any order. Only the first and the last chapter are denominated, otherwise the sections can be freely mixed." (Post-modernism and literature, 128) Another example is the work of William Burroughs in his Naked Lunch, Nova Express, The Soft Machine and The Ticket that exploded in which cut-up is used. (Lewis, 129) As Julian Cowley mentioned in his essay on Ronald Sukenick: "Readiness to ride with the random may be regarded as a characteristically post-modern attitude." (Cowley in Post-modernism and literature, 129)

Paranoia. Barry Lewis claims that post-modernist writing reflects paranoic fears of people living in the era of Cold War. In that times, there was general atmosphere of fear of being spied on and controlled by either enemies or the

15 government. Lewis presents examples of such writing in the novels by Ken Kesey (One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest), Joseph Heller (Catch-22) and Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five). All of their main heroes are somehow controlled by outside powers which imprison them (either in an asylum, a hospital or in a prisoner-of-war camp) and they all suffer from paranoia (Post-modernism and literature, 130), e.g. Heller's Yossarian who believes that everybody is attempting to kill him and desperately tries to run away from the war. The feeling of the protagonists that they are trapped inside some conspiracy is sometimes justified, as we can see in Yossarian's story: "Yossarian's parachute is stolen by Milo Minderbinder and replaced by a useless M&M enterprise voucher. General Peckham sends Yossarian's squadron out on dangerous bombing missions simply to obtain decent aerial photographs for the magazines back home. Nately's whore stabs Yossarian, in the belief that he killed her lover." (Post- modernism and literature, 130) In other works, the paranoia grows bigger and the whole society is blamed to be a conspiracy against a citizen, e.g. in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 or Gravity's Rainbow. (Post-modernism and literature, 130)

Vicious circles. Another feature of post-modern fiction is usage of so- called vicious circles. These occur when the text and the world around cannot be separated. There are two ways in which this can be incorporated into a novel: short circuits and double binds. (Post-modernism and literature, 131) Since double binds are discussed in chapter 4.1 (The Lambs of London), let us focus on short circuits here. The short circuits are the moments in novels when the author suddenly steps into the text and becomes part of the story. This is new in post-modern writing because previously in modernist writing the interference of the author and the plot was avoided so that the outside world would not be confused with the fictional story. On the other hand, in post- modern fiction it is not unusual that the author himself appears in his novel, e.g. in Ronald Sukenick's The Death of The Novel and Other Stories or Raymond Federman's Double of Nothing. (Post-modernism and literature, 132)

The previous paragraphs described the most significant features of post- modern fiction in general. Some of these features will be applied and further discussed in the analytical part of this diploma thesis. The following sub-chapter is dedicated to post-modern literature and its attitude towards history.

16 2.3 Post-modern literature and history. Historiographic metafiction

This sub-chapter aims to describe the relations between post-modern literature and history. Moreover, it tends to define term "historiographic metafiction" used by some authors to refer to historical novels of post-modern time.

Historical novel has been one of the most common literary genres long before the era of post-modernism. Georg Lukacs saw the beginnings of historical novel in the fiction of nineteenth century and regarded Walter Scott as its founder. On the contrary, the periods before the 19th century were viewed very critically by him: "The so-called historical novel of the seventeenth century (Scudéry, Calpranéde, etc.) are historical only as regard their purely external choice of theme and costume. Not only the psychology of the characters, but the manners depicted are entirely those of the writer's own day. And in the most famous "historical novel" of the eighteenth century, Walpole's Castle of Otranto, history is likewise treated as a mere costumery: it is only the curiosities and oddities of the milieu that matter, not an artistically faithful image of a concrete historical epoch." (Lukacs in Phillpot, 1) Thus, for Lukacs the true historical novel is the one which does not simply retell history but let us re-experience life conditions, thoughts and emotions of the people from the real history. (Phillpot, 2) However Richard Maxwell sees the origins of historical novel in the 17th century: "Richard Maxwell, author of the 2009 study The Historical Novel in Europe, 1650- 1950, argues that Madame de Lafayette, author of Princess of Montpensier (1662) and Princess of Cleves (1678) can be accredited as the beginning point in a line of works that led to Scott." (Phillpot, 5) So, there are different opinions about the beginning of historical novel, however, it is obvious that its boom came in the nineteenth century. Jerome de Groot notes that the nineteenth century brought a second wave of historical novel which is distinctive from the previous ones. (Phillpot, 7) As was mentioned before, Lukacs emphasized ability of historical novel to engage readers into the story. De Groot observes another aspect which was important to Lukacs: "The historical novel has a humanist impulse to teach and educate, and this pedagogical element is crucial for Lukacs; it is the movement to historicised revelation and understanding which is the point of the exercise." (de Groot in Phillpot, 7) Thus, in the nineteenth century,

17 historical novel has also and educative purpose and as Phillpot (7) observes, this tendency is the most significant in the work of Charles Dickens who attempted to show dark side and prejudices of his own time. However, the twentieth century was not so rich in historical novels until the rise of post-modernism in 1960's.

The post-modern attitude towards the relationship between historical fiction and academic history (or historiography) is expressed in Richard Slotkin's article Fiction for the purpose of History: "History is what it is, but it is also what we make of it. What we call "history" is not a thing, an object of study, but a story we choose to tell about things. Events undoubtedly occur: the Declaration of Independence was signed on 4 July 1776, yesterday it rained, Napoleon was short, I had a nice lunch. But to be construed as "history" such facts must be selected and arranged on some sort of plan, made to resolve some sort of question which can only be asked subjectively and from a position of hindsight. Thus all history writing requires a fictive or imaginary representation of the past. There is no reason why, in principle, a novel may not have a research basis as good or better than that of a scholarly history; and no reason why, in principle, a novelist's portrayal of a past may be not truer and more accurate than that produced by a scholarly historian." (Slotkin in Phillot, 11-12) For Slotkin, history and historical fiction are either on the same level or as he suggests, historical fiction can be superior to academic history. Additionally, Linda Hutcheon comments on history and historical fiction and notes that there are certain differences between them: "But this is not to say that history and fiction are part of the "same order of discourse" (Lindenberger 1984, 18). They are different, though they share social, cultural, and ideological contexts, as well as formal techniques. Novels (with the exception of some extreme surfictions) incorporate social and political history to some extent, though that extent will vary (Hough 1966, 113); historiography, in turn is as structured, coherent, and teleological as any narrative fiction. It is only the novel but history too that is "palably betwixt and between" (Kermode 1968a, 235)." (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 111) Despite these differences, Hutcheon claims that post-modernism and history are closely connected. She views history as a part of definition of post-modernism, together with self-reflexivity and inter-textuality. As she claims further, post-modernism in fiction should mean fiction which is metafictional and historical at the same time. To

18 distinguish between this "paradoxical beast" from the traditional historical novel, Hutcheon introduces the term "historiographic metafiction". Hutcheon provides examples of historiographic metafiction: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ragtime, The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Name of Rose. (Historiographic metafiction, 3) Let us now focus on historiographic metafiction and summarize its most significant features.

According to Linda Hutcheon, one of the features which distinguishes historiographic metafiction from traditional historical and from historiography is inter- textual parody: "The textual incorporation of these inter-textual past(s) as a constitutive structural element of post-modernist fiction functions as a formal marking of historicity- both literary and "worldly". At first glance it would appear that it is only its constant ironic signalling of difference at the very heart of similarity that distinguishes post- modern parody from medieval and Renaissance imitation." (Historiographic metafiction, 4) Thus Hutcheon reminds that inter-texts had been used before post- modern era and historiographic metafiction but merely on a level of imitation. Further, Gass notes: "Traditionally, stories were stolen, as Chaucer stole his; or they were felt to be the common property of a culture and community." (Gass in Hutcheon, 4) Hutcheon adds that in post-modern era the tendency to understand literary and historical texts as a common property of society returns: "but it is a return made problematic by overtly metafictional assertions of both history and literature as human constructs, indeed, as human illusions-necessary, but none the less illusory for all that." (Historiographic metafiction, 4) The importance of inter-textual parody is, according to her, the fact that it let us experience the past more closely, however it is just the past we are able to recollect from textual sources. (Historiographic metafiction, 4) According to Roland Barthes, the inter-text is "the impossibility of living outside the infinite text" (Barthes in Historiographic metafiction, 8), which makes inter-textuality an essential part of textuality. Hutcheon uses Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose as an example of usage of inter-texts and claims that there are literary (e.g. work of Arthur Conan Doyle) and historical inter-texts (e.g. medieval chronicles). She calls this "the parodically doubled discourse of post-modernist inter-textuality." (Historiographic metafiction, 8) To conclude this part about inter-textuality in post-modern fiction, let us hear earlier

19 mentioned Umberto Eco: "I discovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has been already told." (Eco in Historiographic metafiction, 8)

Another distinguishing feature of historiograhic metafiction is its attitude towards the truth. Hutcheon notes that post-modernism is interested in multiplicity of truths rather than in distinguishing between the truth and lie as it was in the eras before. (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 108) Consequently, these terms lose their meaning: "Historiographic metafiction suggests that truth and falsity may indeed not be the right term in which to discuss fiction, but not for the reasons offered above. Postmodern novels like Flaubert's Parrot, Famous Last Words, and A Maggot openly assert that these are only truths the plural, and never one Truth; and there is rarely falseness per se, just others' truths." (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 109) Todorov (Todorov in A Poetics of Post-modernism, 109) supports this view of truth and falsity in post-modern fiction: "literature is not a discourse that can be or must be false...it is a discourse that, precisely, cannot be subjected to the test of truth; it is neither true nor false, to raise this question has no meaning: this is what defines its very status as "fiction". Moreover, David Hackett Fischer claims that the art has no interest in the external truths, because it is the art itself which creates the truth. In this aspect, as he claims, it differs from history which actively seeks the external truths. (Hackett Fischer in A Poetics of Post- modernism, 109)

Finally, the most significant feature which distinguishes historiographic metafiction from the traditional historical fiction is the fact that the former one deliberately changes and disrupts history. This tendency has a certain purpose as Linda Hutcheon observes: "the historiographic metafiction plays upon the truth and lies of the historical record. In novels like Foe, Burning Water, or Famous Last Words, certain known historical details are deliberately falsified in order to foreground the possible mnemonic failures of recorded history and the constant potential for both deliberate and inadvertent error." (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 115) Thus the aim of changing historical data in historiographic metafiction is to remind the readers that it is necessary to question the facts which we take for granted. Hutcheon claims that post-modern fiction re-writes and re-presents the past in fiction as well as in history in order to

20 prevent its rigidity. (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 110) However, the fact that historiographic metafiction disrupts the past, it does not mean that it denies it fully, as Hutcheon adds: "this does not deny that the past "real" existed, it only conditions our mode of knowledge of that past. We can only know it through its traces, its relicts." (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 119) This scepticism about our knowledge of history is obviously connected to post-modern view of reality and Baudrillard's concept of simulacra which is presented in chapter 2.1.

In the analytical part of this diploma thesis, the features of historiographic metafiction mentioned in this sub-chapter are examined in order to prove that the way Peter Ackroyd deals with historicity in accordance with post-modern attitude.

21 3 About the Author: Life and Work of Peter Ackroyd

This chapter is dedicated to Peter Ackroyd. In the first part of the chapter, basic biographical data of the author are presented. The second part focuses more on Ackroyd's literary work, both fiction and non-fiction, and it attempts to define his place among the writers of contemporary literature.

3.1 Peter Ackroyd: Biography

Peter Ackroyd, British novelist, poet, biographer and reviewer, was born in on 5 October, 1949 in London. ("Peter Ackroyd") As he himself mentions, he was brought up in a working class environment (Ackroyd, Onega, 209), nevertheless, his father was painter Graham Ackroyd but as he had left the family when Ackroyd was just a baby, they have never had a chance to meet personally. It has been claimed that there is a connection between this experience and father figures in his fiction, but Ackroyd himself has denied this. ("The Big Life")

Young Ackroyd visited a private school called St Benedict and run by Benedictes monks but his experience with this kind of education was not positive and he also stopped being a practising Catholic when he left the school. (Ackroyd, Onega, 209) Later, thanks to a scholarship, he studied at Cambridge and after that at Yale. ("The Big Life") He graduated from Cambridge in 1971 with a double first in English literature. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") At the age of 23 he became an editor of the Spectator though this came rather unexpectedly to him: "I didn't know what a literary editor was." ("The Big Life") In that time, he also published his first collection of poems. As he says, he has been always interested in poetry: "I think from my earliest days. I think, when I was a boy, the only thing that interested me was poetry. When I was a school boy, I wrote poetry. And when I was a student, I wrote poetry, and when I was at university or at school, all I really wanted to read was poetry. That was my great ambition, to be a poet. And I believe, I kept on writing poetry until my late 20's. I didn't begin a fiction or anything of that kind until after that." (Ackroyd, Onega, 209)

22 Connected to the publication of the collection there is one unpleasant experience of Ackroyd's personal life. Being a gay, he was afraid of anti-homosexual attitude of the Spectator and therefore he changed some of his poems, e.g. pronoun "he" was replaced by "she". However, as he himself later admitted, it was a mistake. ("The Big Life")

In 1973, during his studies at Yale, Ackroyd wrote Notes for a New Culture: An Essay on Modernism (published 1976), "a polemic and extended essay, directed against our declining national culture" (Ackroyd, Onega, 210) The essay helped him to incorporated himself among representatives of British post-modernism. ("Peter Ackroyd - Critical Essays") Since 1980's Ackroyd has been a full-time writer who is able to produced one book per year on average. However, his fast life-pace and enormous exhaustion led to a nervous breakdown in late 1980's and to a heart-attack in 1999. After the heart-attack he spent one week in comma but he does not assign this experience any importance: "it was just one of those things." ("The Big Life") It is interesting that the heart-attack came soon after he finished working on London: The Biography. Later he commented on it: "Writing my biography of London was a big contributory factor (to the illness). London nearly killed me. While I was writing it, I would jokingly tell my friends that it was killing me. This turned out to be literally true. You see, London has definitely made my career - my most successful books all have the capital as their main theme - but it has exacted a very high price. Perhaps the city, which I regards as an organic being in its biography, wanted my death as a payment." (Ackroyd in My Words Echo Thus, 1)

3.2 Peter Ackroyd: Summary of work

As it was mentioned above, Ackroyd's first interest was in poetry, so there is no wonder that his first published work was a volume of poetry called Ouch (published 1971) followed by another one called London Lickpenny in 1973. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") In 1976 Notes for a New Culture was published in which Ackroyd presented his opinion that British culture of 1970's was at the decline. As he explained in an interview with Susana Onega, his distrust in British culture was

23 based on his devotion to poetry - and British poetry in that times was not in a very good position. Anyway, later he changed his mind about British culture because, as he said, he was able to see a future of it. (Ackroyd, Onega, 210) In the essay he defined modernism as follows: "Modernism1 is the movement in which created form began to interrogate itself, and to move toward an impossible union with itself in self- identity...Language is seen to constitute meaning only within itself, and to excise the external references of subjectivity and its corollary, Man." (Ackroyd in Finney, 241) As Finney mentions, Ackroyd considers language and form the basic components of post- modernism. However, England in his opinion had deviated from this common interpretation of post-modernism. (Finney, 241)

Three years after Notes for a New Culture, Ackroyd published his first biography, Ezra Pound and His World. ("Peter Ackroyd Essay - Critical Essays") At the same year he also published Dressing Up, Transvestism and Drag: The History of an Obsession which Finney describes as very personal and unconventional work which let Ackroyd to step out of the mainstream. (242) Apart from Pound's biography, Peter Ackroyd wrote about several major figures of English literature, namely T. S. Eliot, Charles Dickens, William Blake and Thomas Moore. Additionally, he wrote also a biography of London mentioned above. A typical feature of Ackroyd's biographies is the fact that he views theirs subjects from an unusual or even controversial point of view. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") For example, in T. S. Eliot, published in 1984, he expressed some provocative statements when he claimed that through his revisions and omissions, Ezra Pound actually saved the poetry in The Waste Land or that Eliot helped to create the idea of modernism but at the same time he eventually abandoned it. (Finney, 245)

However, the main concern of this thesis are Ackroyd's novels which will be discussed in the following paragraphs. The aim is to summarize their plots and characteristics which are relevant also to the analytical part. For the purposes of this diploma thesis and given by its length, only novels which were written before The Fall of Troy were chosen. The very first novel which Ackroyd published was The Great Fire

1 "Post-modernism as a term had yet (i.e. in 1970's - author's note) to become fashionable." (Finney, 241)

24 of London (1982). Susana Onega describes it as "the first of a whole series of fictional and non-fictional books prompted by Ackroyd's admiration for Dickens." (Peter Ackroyd, 27) The novel is Dickensian in its structure as it follows the multi-plot of Victorian novel. Charles Dickens' work is reminded in the names of characters, e.g. Little Arthur which clearly refers to Little Dorrit and primarily in the theme of the novel. There is a big number of characters connected via interest in making a film based on Dickens' Little Dorrit or by living in the area where the plot of Little Dorrit took place. (Peter Ackroyd, 27-28) Another hero of the novel is London itself. The characters are slowly beginning to understand that they are only another generation in the chain of many other generations who have lived in London for thousand years and whose traces are still being recognizable. (Peter Ackroyd, 28) The novel ends with a fire which means the end of filming. According to Barry Lewis, the fire refers to three dramatic episodes of London history: "First, these twin episodes of the fire and the breakout2 constitute a curious displacement of the fire that destroyed the original Marshalsea Prison in 1885 (...) Second, the conjunction of the fire and the prison escape recalls a black episode in London's past that took place during the anti-Catholic Gordon riots of June 1780 (...) The third echo that reverberates with the fire at the end of Ackroyd's novel is, of course, (...) the Great Fire of September 1666." (My Words Echo Thus, 24) Thus, London and its history is incorporated into the novel on several levels. Susana Onega observes that Ackroyd presents London as a place where English culture, history and power is concentrated. (Ackroyd, Onega, 208) Moreover, London is a recurrent motive in other Ackroyd's books of fiction, starting with the second one, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde. As this novel is thoroughly discussed in the analytical part, let us focus on Ackroyd's third novel, Hawksmoor.

Hawksmoor is a good example of Ackroyd's approach towards history and literature and it shares some characteristics with the novels analysed in this thesis. There are two levels of narration, one of them taking place in the eighteenth century and the other one in the twentieth century. The main protagonist of the first level, Nicolas Dyer is based on historical figure of architect Nicolas Hawksmoor who built seven churches in London. (Finney, 246) In the novel, he is presented as a Satanist who

2 breakout from a jail - author's note

25 sacrifices young boys in each of his churches. The twentieth century story-line focuses on detective Nicolas Hawksmoor who investigates mysterious murderers connected to the seven churches and which traces back to Nicolas Dyer. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") While Dyer represents mystery and dark magic, Hawksmoor believes in the power of reason. However, he fails to solve the murderers and the reason is defeated in the battle with mystery. (Finney, 247)

The fifth novel (with Chatterton being the fourth one) by Peter Ackroyd is called First Light and it was published in 1989. The novel follows three stories; the first of them concentrates on an archeology team working on excavations on an ancient burial site in Pilgrin Valley which is situated on the border between Devon and Dorset. The main protagonist of this part is Mark Clare, the leading archeologist. The second part focuses on a story of Joey Hanover who arrives to the valley to search the truth about his family. Finally, the third story centres on an astronomer, Damian Fall and his search for mysteries of the universe. (My Words Echo Thus, 53-54) In conclusion, we can claim that the main topic of all these stories is searching for origins of different kind. Barry Lewis comments on this: "Yet beginnings are nowhere to be found. Each confronts the possibility that everything that is, just is: existence has no purpose. Such unremitting pessimism is associated with Thomas Hardy, the Dorsetshire author whose writings are echoed in throughout First Light. Many of Hardy's writings deal with the issues of time, identity and space that Ackroyd also explores." (My Words Echo Thus, 54) Thus Thomas Hardy is after Charles Dickens or Oscar Wilde another author whose influence is observable in Ackroyd's writing.

The next novel this chapter deals with is English Music published in 1992. Barry Lewis calls it the most Dickensian of Ackroyd's novels because it follows the pattern of David Copperfield or Great Expectations, i.e. it deals with a young man and his journey to maturity. (My Words Echo Thus, 66) The plot takes place in 1920's and in the following era until 1992 and focuses on the main protagonist, Timothy Harcombe. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") Timothy describes his life in the odd-numbered chapters, while the even-numbered chapters are dedicated to Timothy's supernatural encounters with different figures of English culture and history, e.g. with Charles Dickens or the characters of Great Expectations. The title English Music is

26 connected with this aspect of the story because it refers not only to English music but also to history and culture in general. (My Words Echo Thus, 67)

A year after English music, The House of Doctor Dee which "mixes ghosts and images of a past historical figure with an imperfectly realized character in the present who stumbles back and forth in time " was published. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") The main protagonist of the story, Matthew Palmer, inherits a house in Clerkenwell and after moving in he suffers from visions of doctor John Dee, the previous owner of the house. Consequently, there are two story-lines, one of them is Palmer's and the second one is Dee's. Their stories are connected as both of them are somehow interested in the past and run their own investigation - Palmer searches old documents to find the truth about his father, while doctor Dee attempts to discover an old part of London which he believes is hidden underground. Similarly to The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, Ackroyd managed to the style of Dee's writing without any difficulties for contemporary readers. ("The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd")

Another novel to be mentioned in this thesis is Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem which was also published as The Trial of Elizabeth Cree: A Novel of the Limehouse murders. It tells a story of Elizabeth Cree who was hanged for her husband's murder. Her life-story is told through the texts of the trial with, her internal monologues or her husband's diary. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") While Elizabeth's story is told, the other story-line centres on "Limehouse Golem" a mysterious serial killer. There are several real historical characters who appear in the novel, e.g. a comedian Dan Leno, Karl Marx or George Gissing. ("Pea soupers and the smell of babbage")

Milton in America focuses on John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost. However, Ackroyd deliberately changes his life and sends him on a journey to Massachusetts accompanied by a man called Goosequill. In America, Ackroyd's Milton encounters with the life of Native Americans and spends some time with them in the wilderness. Nevertheless, after having an affair with a Native American girl he comes back to the settlement of the Puritans and becomes an initiator of a war against a Catholic village. Thus, Ackroyd's Milton "destroys a paradise" which was represented

27 by the New World. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") In the novel, there are allusions on Paradise Lost and also on the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, e.g. his Scarlett Letter is reminded in a similar case of a young woman accused of adultery. (My Words Echo Thus, 98) As we can see, this novel provides another source of Ackroyd's inspiration, both from the literary and historical point of view.

For the purposes of this thesis, only two more novels are presented in greater detail, namely The Plato Papers and The Clerkenwell Tales. The former, unlike the other novels, takes place in the future, namely year 3700 A.D. The central motive of the story is London and its survival in the future. The main hero of the novel, Plato, is an expert in history but when he starts questioning his own knowledge, he is suddenly able to the reality and becomes aware that there is one more London beneath the London he knows. He visits this second city and has revalue his knowledge of reality. However, when he shares this experience with the public, his ideas are considered a threat to the accepted order, Plato is put on a trial and he ends up leaving London and its safety. ("Peter Ackroyd: The Plato Papers - 1999") On the other hand, The Clerkenwell Tales, takes the readers back to the past, in this case into the medieval ages. There is obvious inspiration by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales both in the title and also in the names of individual chapters which are also adapted from the Chaucer's work. Moreover, the novel is remarkable for its description of everyday medieval life, which is based on Ackroyd's extensive studying of history. ("Old London Calling") Also, the plot is quite extraordinary and make significant changes to history: "In 1399, as Henry Bolingbroke leads a revolutionary army against Richard II, Dominus, a clandestine group of high-powered officials seems to be in league with an apocalyptic religious sect; both are keen to overthrow the king. Meanwhile, as 'the mad nun of Clerkenwell' is prophesying doom to a volatile and superstitious public, a series of bomb attacks on the city's churches confirms both her premonitions and the fears of the people." ("Old London Calling")

The next two novels which Ackroyd published are The Lambs of London and The Fall of Troy which are the subject of this thesis. Since the purpose of this part was to conclude novels written before The Fall of Troy being the last Ackroyd's book this thesis is interested in, here is a mere list of works published later: The Casebook of

28 Victor Frankenstein, The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling, The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend. ("Peter Ackroyd")

To conclude this part, let us summary the most significant features of Ackroyd's novels: most of them deals with the past; London is a recurrent theme in the novels; there are inter-texts and allusions on other works and authors (Dickens, Hardy, Chaucer) and there is a clash between our knowledge of history and Ackroyd's fictional world.

3.3 Peter Ackroyd: His importance and place among contemporary writers

Peter Ackroyd is generally considered a post-modern author and a leading figure of British historiographic metafiction. ("Peter Ackroyd, Essay - Critical Essays") According to Susana Onega, the features of Ackroyd's writing which link him to other representatives of historiographic metafiction are: "the recurrent tendency to blur the boundaries between storytelling and history; to enhance the linguistic component of writing; and to underline the constructedness of the world". ("Interview with Peter Ackroyd", 208) Nevertheless, as Brian Finney mentions, British post- modernist are not so radical in comparison to their American counterparts and they do not form a closed unit nor they subscribe themselves to a particular school. Moreover, Peter Ackroyd tends to exclude himself from his contemporaries: "Peter Ackroyd typically insists on the difference of his fiction from the entire contemporary scene: "Someone said the novels I write really have no connection with the novels of my contemporaries, or even with the period itself. I think that's probably true" (Smith 60). Ackroyd is a peculiar combination. He is of his time and outside it, representative of a newer kind of fictional British writing and yet unique, in rebellion against the mainstream English fictional tradition yet writing in an alternative British strain of his choosing." (Finney, 240) Despite his own denial of being part of the mainstream, he became one of the most prominent British writers already with his third novel,

29 Hawksmoor which was awarded the Whitebread Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize. (Ackroyd, Onega, 208)

There is no doubt that Ackroyd belong among prominent contemporary writers, e.g. Salman Rushdie, John Banville or John Fowles. (Ackroyd, Onega, 208- 209) However, the contemporary authors are not the only ones with whom he can be matched. Thanks to Ackroyd's fascination by London, Barry Lewis places him among such authors as William Blake and Charles Dickens. (My Words Echo Thus, 2)

Finally, let us ask a question: How should we understand Peter Ackroyd? Barry Lewis provides quite an interesting answer: "To begin understanding Peter Ackroyd, it is perhaps helpful to reverse the metaphor of the city-as-human and to consider this English writer as if he were a city. He has his landmarks, his suburbs, and his neglected boroughs. As with London, he is very difficult to grasp entire. This is partly because, as his friend Bryan Appleyard states, he "has made a profession out of evasion, camp denials and sudden changes of perspective." It is also because his writing sprawls, like the metropolitan space itself. In his first book, Ackroyd cites W. H. Auden's line from his poem about Matthew Arnold: "His gift knew what he was - a dark disordered city." This applies to Ackroyd, too. The darkness and disorder of Ackroyd and London - and Ackroyd's London - can only be captured in glimpses and echoes." (My Words Echo Thus, 2-3)

30 4 Historicity in Peter Ackroyd's Novels

This chapter analyses individual novels novels and closely observes how does Peter Ackroyd deal with historicity in his novels. The aim of the chapter is to compare the techniques and ways in which the historicity is employed, to find common features and to state conclusions based on the analysis.

There are four sub-chapters, each of them dedicated to one of the novels. Special attention is paid to common features relevant to dealing with history; the theoretical background for these features is based on Linda Hutcheon's A Poetics of Postmodernism. History, theory, fiction. In addition, the primary sources are supported by secondary sources mentioned in the List of sources.

4.1 The Lambs of London: Family History Rewritten

"The feigned can never be more true than the real. Chaos would come again." (The Lambs of London, 107)

The Lambs of London deals with a fictional relationship between siblings Charles and Mary Lamb and William Ireland. While the first two became famous as writers, the third is remembered for being one of the most successful forgers of all time. Once again, we can see a mixture of real events with those which happened only in the author's mind. As the author himself claims: "I have invented characters, and changed the life of the Lamb family for the sake of the larger narrative." (The Lambs of London) Thus, Ackroyd uses historical facts set in a new context, enables his readers to see new connections and in conclusion (paradoxically) to understand intentions and actions of the main protagonists better. This way of dealing with historical characters is called double binds and belongs to basic features of post-modern literature. (Post-modernism and literature, 131) Moreover, apart from the three central characters, the readers are acquinted with other famous people, namely Thomas de Quincey. As mentioned before,

31 the novel deals with fates of real historical figures and therefore the aim of the following paragraphs is to compare their real-life stories to those which they lived in the novel.

One of the central motives of the story is the relationship between Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb and William Henry Ireland. Though this relationship never existed in the past, Ackroyd gives it touch of reality by leading these three together through their mutual love of Shakespeare. In fact, none of the Lambs ever met Ireland and the only connection between him and the siblings can be found in Charles' attempt to mock him: "Lamb, who never met Ireland in person spoofed Ireland's Shakespeare's papers with his own discovery, Falstaff's Letters." (Kahan, 110) As we will learn later, the Lambs' role in the novel is more than anything else to dramatize the plot. This sub- chapter examines relationship of the real siblings and compares it to their fictional story. One of the following sub-chapters is dedicated exclusively to Mary Lamb and her role in the novel.

It is generally known that Mary as well as her brother Charles were deeply interested in Shakespeare and together they produced Tales of Shakespeare. ("Mary and Charles Lamb: Their Web Biographies") In Ackroyd's novel they show their admiration to Shakespeare by preparing a play based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which became a great pleasure of the fictional Mary Lamb: "So she seized eagerly upon this short comedy, concerning the mechanicals, within the larger comedy of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She had helped Charles to connect the separate scenes, and had even furnished some additional dialogue and stage business for the purposes of continuity." (Lambs of London, 121) The final staging of the play is also the moment of Ackroyd's Mary's death (Lambs of London, 215), although in reality she died fifteen years later after her brother's death in 1836. ("Mary Lamb's Not-so- Gentle Madness") There are direct quotations from Shakespeare, e.g. Bottom's line: "That will ask some tears in the performance of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move storms" (117) or Oberon's final speech:

"To the best bride-bed will we,

Which by us shall blessed be;

32 And the issue there create

Ever shall be fortunate." (215)

Apart from these we can find modifications to the original text, e. g. when one of the characters, Benjamin Milton is trying to deliver Quince's line with Cockney accent: "Cos it ain't nuffink but roarin'" (123) The original line was this: "You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring." (Shakespeare, 11) This is a first example of Ackroyd's dealing with original texts which will be further discussed in the following paragraphs dealing with another admirer of Shakespeare - William Henry Ireland.

William H. Ireland's interest in Shakespeare had quite different consequences. Being only seventeen, Ireland gained general publicity by claiming that he had discovered lost and unknown Shakespeare's works. According to Kahan (108) these "Shakespeare papers" included: "legal papers, lost poems, a profession of faith proving Shakespeare to be a Protestant, portraits, correspondences between Shakespeare and Leicester, Shakespeare and Southampton, Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare and his printer, signed and annotated books from Shakespeare's library, the original manuscript of King Lear and a fragment of Hamlet, both with significant variants - even a lock of Shakespeare's hair." The forgeries were accepted with great excitement although they were revealed quite soon. (Harris, 481) Nevertheless, Ireland's ability to adopt Shakespeare's style was so great that he even managed to "discover" Shakespeare's lost play Vortigern which was staged on April 2, 1796 and Kahan describes it as "the most controversial Shakespearian production of the entire eighteenth century" (108) Ackroyd's novel deals with this occasion and reminds famous cast who took part in the play as well as its failure with public. Discontent of the audience is described vividly in the novel: "The audience could not be controlled. To William's amazement there was a general and prolonged hysteria that lasted for several minutes. He could hear a thudding sound that he interpreted, correctly, as the noise of fruit being thrown upon the stage." (The Lambs of London, 175) Kahan (108) explains the failure of the play partially by very unsatisfying performances of some members of the cast who doubted the originality of the manuscript. Vortigern is also a great example of the way in which Ackroyd deals with original texts. As Kahan points out, Ackroyd made

33 changes in the plot of the play and added a new character as well as new speeches. Kahan also offers two examples of Ackroyd's correcting of Ireland, compare these two extracts:

Ireland's Shakespeare

Time was, alas, I needed not this spur

But here's a goading and a stinging thorn,

That doth unstring my nerves. Oh, conscience, conscience!

When thou didst cry I then did stop thy mouth

And thrust upon thee dire ambition

***

Oh, then thou dost ope wide thy bony jaws,

And with rude laughter and fantastic tricks

Thou clapst thy rattling fingers to thy sides;

And when this solemn mockery ended....

Ackroyd's Ireland

Time was alas, I needed not this plea

But here's a secret and a stinging thorn

34 That wounds my troubled nerves - O son, O son

By boldly thursting on thee dire ambition

If there is aught of malice in the plot

'Twas I who led you to deep-dyed betrayal.

***

O then thou dost ope wide thy hideous jaws and with rude laughter and fantastic tricks

Thou clasps thy rattling fingers to their side

And when this solemn mockery is over... (Kahan, 111-112)

What is the point of these modifications? Kahan in his review sarcastically comments: "Exactly what Ackroyd is attempting here is unclear (...) While such questions of fidelity were at the hear of Ireland's own "improvements" of Shakespeare, it's euqally possible that Ackroyd was attempting to ruin Ireland's verse creating parody in a speech that demands ultimately that its actors and audience acknowledge that all attempts at historical recovery must end in "solemn mock'ry". (112)

In accordance with the real story, Ackroyd lets Ireland to confess shortly after the staging of the play. Ireland's intentions to create the forgeries are another important subject of the novel. Ackroyd's Ireland claims to become a forger only to gain respect and affection of his father, Mr Samuel Ireland. The real Ireland described his intentions closely in The Confessions of William Henry Ireland (302): "...no other than a fervent desire I had to afford satisfaction to Mr. Samuel Ireland." Compare with the passage from the novel in which William confesses to his father:

"Don't you see it? I am the benefactor. There was no lady in the coffee-house. I invented her."

"What in God's name are you saying?" His throat had suddenly gone dry.

William then went down on his knees. "I crave your pardon in the most submissive terms. I acted out of innocent delight and sheer intoxication with my gifts. I did it to

35 please you -" (The Lambs of London, 201) However, in Ackroyd's version of the events rather than an urge to "afford satisfaction", the main reason is to prove to his father that he is not an incapable greenhorn:

"You can stand before me and tell me that you alone - no more than a boy - you alone produced such voluminous papers? It is laughable. It is ridiculous."

"It is the truth."

"No. No truth. Phantasy..."

"You do not know me at all." (The Lambs of London, 202)

Such shift from the real events gives Ackroyd a chance to incorporate a story of a complicated relationship between the father and the son.

As we will observe later, this is not the only change of Ireland's relationships with people in his surroundings. The following paragraphs describe closely his fictional romantic relationship with Mary Lamb. Nevertheless, this place is dedicated to another historical figure in Ireland's life who is interesting from the point of view of theory of literature. This person is Edmond Malone, an Irish scholar and editor, a Shakespearian expert ("Edmond Malone") who was the greatest critic of the real Ireland's forgeries. In Ackroyd's novel, however, Malone becomes the greatest supporter of the same thing. (Kahan, 108-109) As Kahan points out, by changing the role of Malone the story looses a very convenient dramatic plot. On the other hand, this is substituted by the relationship with Mary mentioned above. (109)

By including Mary Lamb in Ireland's life the story gains a romantic touch. Although there is no happy-ending and the whole relationship is far from our ideas about big love, in Mary's case it brings sort of humanization of her character. In other aspects of her life, however, Ackroyd follows the sad history of her life. Suffering from bipolar disorder she stabbed to death her own mother in 1796. (Woodberry, 659) Involving her in a romantic and unfulfilled relationship with Ireland makes her story similar to the one of Shakespeare's Ophelia. The resemblance with Ophelia is stressed in an incident during Mary's and Ireland's trip to Southwark3. Mary slips and falls into

3 A district in the central London, the original Globe was build there in 1599.

36 the water of the river Thames: "He noticed that she was trembling violently. Then she made a movement - it was as if she was falling sideways. And she slipped, or toppled, from the bank into the river below. As she plunged beneath the surface of the water her red dress billowed around her, like a flower suddenly opening into full bloom." (The Lambs of London, 134) If we compare this extract with description of Ophelia's drowning in Shakespeare's Hamlet, we can notice obvious similarities:

"Queen Gertrude

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious silver broke When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; and, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:" (114) Thus, we can claim this as an example of an inter-textual reference. Linda Hutcheon considers inter-textuality to be "a constitutive structural element of postmodernist fiction" and observes that this applies no longer only to literature but also to historical texts.4 This kind of inter-textual reference is also present in The Lambs of London as will be proved in the following sub-chapters.

Ophelia's fate is reminded few pages later when Ireland gives a speech upon "The Sources of Shakespeare's Tragedies" and he mentions the case of "Katherine Hamnet or Hamlet", a young girl from Stratford-upon-Avon who drowned herself in 1580 and could become an inspiration for Ophelia. (The Lambs of London, 142-144) As Mary also attends the lecture, there is a visible connection between the two occasions. Finally, the similarity of Mary and Ophelia is stated directly by Charles Lamb when he finds out that Mary is in love with Ireland: "Mary's fits of temper, and her evident unease, had become more pronounced in recent weeks. But Charles had explained this to himself as

4"Umberto Eco, writing of his novel, The Name of the Rose, claims: "I discovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told. The stories which The Name of the Rose retells are both those of literature (by Conan Doyle, Borges, Joyce, Mann, Eliot, and so on) and those of history (medieval chronicles, religious testimonies). This is the parodically doubled discourse of postmodern intertextuality." (Hutcheon, 128)

37 the strain of their father's advancing senility. He knew that she was protective of Ireland - and even regarded him with affection - but secretly to love him? "So she is Ophelia," he said. "Wasting." (The Lambs of London, 183) Connecting Mary Lamb with Ophelia provides quite a new view on a woman "who was mad, bad and dangerous to know" (Woodbery, 659) and shows her in more positive light when even the horrid act of murdering her mother does not seem so unaccountable.

Ireland's lecture mentioned above is remarkable for one more reason. It the first time when Thomas de Quincey appears in the novel for the first time. As will be proved in the following paragraphs, his character underwent several changes in comparison with reality. This episode is based on de Quincey's memories from Confessions: "But I found, on taking possession of my new quarters, that the house already contained one single inmate, a poor friendless child, apparently ten years old..." Compare this to the adequate passage from The Lambs of London (145): "On that first night, however, he discovered that he had a companion. The house had one other inmate, a girl of no mote than twelve or thirteen years, who had crept there out of elements." Nevertheless, it seems that Ackroyd's Anne is rather a compilation of two girls who de Quincey met in London. Later in Confessions, de Quincey mentions his quite deep and sincere relationship to a girl called Ann with whom he used to "walked at nights with this poor friendless girl up and down Oxford Street, or had rested with her on steps and under the shelter of porticoes." (Confessions of an English Opium Eater) In The Lambs of London we read similar passage: "They would often walk the streets together. They went along Berners Street into Oxford Street, stopping at the corner by the goldsmith's..." (145) Only difference in this case is that de Quincey's companion is identical with his roomate.

However, this is not the only shift concerning de Quincey in the novel. The more important fact is that in the year 1796 in which the story takes place, de Quincey born in 1785 couldn't possibly live in London. He moved there only when he was seventeen. ("A Biography of Thomas de Quincey") Also the friendship between Ackroyd's de Quincey and Charles Lamb is not based on real events. Nevertheless, we can find another kind of connection between these two literates. The real de Quincey wrote an essay on Charles Lamb in 1848 which showed his admiration for Lamb's

38 work: "Charles Lamb, if any ever was, is amongst the class here contemplated; he, if any ever has, ranks amongst writers whose works are destined to be forever unpopular, and yet forever interesting; interesting, moreover, by means of those very qualities which guarantee their non-popularity. The same qualities which will be found forbidding to the worldly and the thoughtless, which will be found insipid to many even amongst robust and powerful minds, are exactly those which will continue to command a select audience in every generation." As we can read in the same source, the real Lamb was a friend of another important poet of that time, S. T. Coleridge. The two of them firstly met at Christ's Hospital school where Lamb began his studies in 1782. ("Charles Lamb") Augustine Birell ("The Letters of Charles Lamb") describes this friendship as very intense (at least on Lamb's part) and accentuates its importance for Lamb's personal life. The real de Quincey provides us with few extracts from private correspondence between the real Lamb and Coleridge, e.g. this: "Do continue to write to me. I read your letters with my sister, and they give us both abundance of delight. Especially they please us two when you talk in a religious strain. Not but we are offended occasionally with a certain freedom of expression, a certain air of mysticism, more consonant to the conceits of pagan philosophy than consistent with the humility of genuine piety." ("Charles Lamb") De Quincey also points out the year in which this was written - 1797, i.e. one year after the terrible tradegy in Lamb's family and also a year after the fictional events of The Lambs of London. Ackroyd's Lamb writes a letter to de Quincey right after the tragedy:

"My dearest de Quincey,

You will have been informed by now of the terrible calamities that have fallen on our family. My poor dearest sister in a fit of insanity has been the death of her own mother. She is at present in a mad-house from where I fear she will be moved to a prison and, God forbid, to the scaffold. God has preserved me to my senses - I eat and drink and sleep and have my judgement I believe very sound. My father is further distracted, of course, and I am left to take care of him and our maid-servant. Thank God I am very calm and composed, and able to do the best that remains to do. Write - as religious a letter as possible - but no mention of what is gone and done with. With me "the former things are passed away" and I have something more to do than to feel. I

39 charge you, don't think of coming to see me. Write. I will not see you if you come. God almighty love you and all of us - C. Lamb" (The Lambs of London, 207) Compare this now with a real letter send by Lamb to Coleridge:

My Dearest Friend,

White, or some of my friends, or the public papers, by this time may have informed you of the terrible calamities that have fallen on our family. I will only give you the outlines: My poor dear, dearest sister, in a fit of insanity, has been the death of her own mother. I was at hand only time enough to snatch the knife out of her grasp. She is at present in a madhouse, from whence I hear she must be moved to an hospital. God has preserved to me my senses, I eat and drink and sleep, and have my judgment, I believe, very sound. My poor father was slightly wounded, and I am left to take care of him and my aunt. Mr. Norris of the Blue-Coat School, has been very kind to us, and we have no other friends; but, thank God, I am very calm and composed, and able to do the best that remains to do. Write as religious a letter as possible, but no mention of what is gone and done with. With me "the former things are passed away," and I have something more to do than to feel.

God Almighty have us all in His keeping!

C. Lamb

Obviously, Ackroyd once again corrected a real piece of text "for the sake of the larger narrative". More importantly, he changed the addressee and thus replaced Coleridge in the real world by de Quincey in the fictional one. By this act, the changes concerning de Quincey are topped off.

From the foregoing paragraphs we can get quite clear picture of the role which history plays in the works by Peter Ackroyd. As was mentioned in chapter 2.2, there are three ways in which post-modern writers distort history: apocryphal history, anachronism and blending of history and fantasy. Out of these three, The Lambs of London are the most significant for blending of history and fantasy, e.g. combining real life situations with those which are fictional as we could see on many examples above.

As mentioned before, we can observe an example of using historical texts

40 (e.g. the letters from the real Charles Lamb) as intertexts. Hutcheon (A Poetics of Post- modernism, 108-109) claims the importance of using historical intertexts to support cultural and historical context of fictional events and reminds work of Christa Wolf No Place on Earth5 in which she introduces fictional relationships similar to those in The Lambs of London.

The novel offer us another phenomenon typical for post-modern using of history - double bind - which are described by B. Lewis: "The double bind is a concept elaborated by Gregory Bateson and others to explain an inability to distinguish between different levels of discourse. (...) The equivalent of the double bind occurs in postmodernist fiction when historical characters appear in a patent fiction." (Post- modernism and literature, 132) Inclusion of real historical figures in a fiction is a guarantee of authenticity of the fictional story in order to cover the connection between fiction and history, as Hutcheon (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 114) reminds. However, as she adds: "The metafictional self-reflexivity of postmodern novels prevents any such subterfuge, and poses that ontological join as a problem: how do we know the past? What do (what can) we know of it?" (114-115) This leads us to another feature of Ackroyd's novel: the faiths of historical characters are deliberately changed and put into new contexts. If we consider the historical concerning Thomas de Quincey for example, there is no doubt that they are known or easily accessible. Then, why does the author change the obvious truth? Hutcheon reminds other works6 of historiographic metafiction and concludes that the historical facts are changed: "in order to foreground the possible mnemonic failures of recorded history and the constant potential for both deliberate and inadvertent error." (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 114) By using this technique, Ackroyd destabilizes our knowledge of historical facts and presents an optional course of history; in consequence he makes so real, that it controverts his own words quoted at the beginning of this chapter: "The feigned can never be more true than the real. Chaos would come again."

There is another feature which Hutcheon mentions as a basic one for historiographic metafiction - assimilation of historical data: "Historiographic

5 The novel describes a fictional meeting of two historical figures, dramatist Heinrich von Kleist and poet Karoline von Günderrode (Hutcheon, 108) 6 Foe, Burning Water and Famous Last Words (author's note)

41 metafiction incorporates, but rarely assimilates such data. More often, the process of attemtipting to assimilate is what is foregrounded." (A Poetics of Post-modernism, 115) This means that the characters have to cope with real historical events and the readers observe this process of coping. In Lambs of London, the examples are the murder of Mrs Lamb or the premiere of Vortigern.

4.2 The Fall of Troy: A Story Which We Need

"We live in a hard age. An age of iron. We need these stories. We should give thanks that they survived." (The Fall of Troy)

In The Fall of Troy, published in 2006, Peter Ackroyd uses the facts about Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hissarlik to create a mixture of a love-story, detective story, mystery and an insight into the work of archeologists. The following chapters aim to compare history and fiction and to draw conclusions based on theories of postmodern writing. The issues discussed in this chapter include the personality of Heinrich Schliemann, his wife Sofia and incorporation of intertexts in the novel.

The main hero of Ackroyd's novel bears the name of Heinrich Obermann yet there is no doubt that he is a fictional equivalent of Heinrich Schliemann, a famous amateur archeologist who became famous by excavating remains of Troy (Heuck Allen, 110) - "every city that ever was and every city that ever will be." (The Fall of Troy, 24) The change of name of the main protagonist gives a clear signal that we can expect a purely fictional story with basis on historical facts. Let us now compare the faiths of the two Heinrichs, Schliemann and Obermann with a closer look.

Ackroyd's Obermann is described as a man in his fifties, short, fat and "with a great round ball head like a cannon ball." (The Fall of Troy, 3) In terms of personality, Obermann is described as an unscrupulous man, fully devoted to his goal. He is considered to be: "a somewhat aggresive and overbearing fellow" (The Fall of

42 Troy, 167) by the people around him. Troy has become his passion and the meaning of his life and he is able to cross any boundaries to prove his point. As one of the characters, Obermann's colleague Pierre Linneau observes: "Herr Obermann does not deal in hypothesis or argument. This is Homer's Troy. Or it is nothing. He is a man of great conviction. He will not be withstood on these matters. If he is attacked, he is like a tiger." (The Fall of Troy, 136) Obermann does everything to protect his imagination of Troy: he hides precious things so that they would not be taken by Turkish government, he destroys inconvenient evidence and people. Moreover, his personal life is full of dark secrets. He marries a young Greek girl, takes her with him to excavations at Hissarlik but as she eventually finds out, the marriage is not valid because Obermann is still married to a mad Russian woman. Moreover, they have an adult son together. Obermann clearly is the villain of the story but how does it correspond with the picture of his real life prototype? "Heinrich Schliemann is arguably the greatest rouge in archaeological history. He was a classical eccentric whose obsession with proving the Battle of Troy in Homer's Iliad led him to repeated lies and deceptions, fakes and grand theft and in his death, to his self-glorification as an archaeological demi-god somehow coequal with the gods of classical Greece." ("Heinrich Schliemann") Although, this very direct depiction of the man could seem a bit too harsh, there is a little doubt that it is not accurate. Curtis Runnels, the reviewer of David A. Traill's Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit expresses disappointment that all the romantic stories surrounding Schliemann's life are faked. He mentions another biographical work, The Walls of Windy Troy, which depicted Schliemann in quite a different light: "I was treated to a thrilling account of this amazing man and his incredible adventures. Rising from rags to riches, Schliemann survived an unhappy childhood, unrequited love, poverty, shipwreck, and other adversity to become a fabulously successful businessman." (125) However, as he reminds, this interpretation of events is based on Schliemann's own rather romantic autobiographies. Even the suggestions about Schliemann's stealing things from excavations are based on real events, although he himself never admitted it (Runnels). Runnels also reminds Traill's opinion about Schliemann's possible motivation to these acts which is not so far away from the motivation of Ackroyd's Obermann depicted above: "Traill fixes instead upon a flawed passion for success at any

43 price, which led Schliemann to acts of mendacity, fraud, and outright theft." (126) As we can see, Ackroyd did not have to create a perfect villain for his story - he was there already, a man whose life was full of lies and fakes so he created a perfect heroic picture of himself to cover the truth. Ackroyd enhanced his life story with an ending almost fit for Greek tragedies - his Obermann dies after being accidentally attacked by a horse rode by his own son. Then, his young Greek wife comes back to Troy with her new lover to continue the works. (The Fall of Troy, 211-214) The following paragraphs are dedicated to her and her role in the novel. Schliemann's death was not so dramatic, though. He died in Naples after ear surgery ("Heinrich Schliemann")

Sophia Chrysanthis is another central character of the novel, her name in reality was Sophia Engastromenos ("Heinrich Schliemann"). Ackroyd's Sophia is depicted as an intelligent, independent woman with passion for Homer and Greek myths. Ackroyd's Obermann was delighted by her: "Sophia Chrysanthis is a splendid woman, easy to talk, compassionate, kindly and a good housewife, full of life and well brought-up." (The Fall of Troy, 7) These are the exact words which Schliemann used when he encountered Sophia (although only in a picture). Ackroyd's Obermann searched for his new wife with a help of a friend and in reality, Schliemann placed an "order" to his friend Theokletos Vimpos - his intended wife was supposed to "be young enough to have children, amiable, enthusiast of ancient Greece art and literature, ancient history and geography, willing to accompany him in his travels..." Vimpos provided him with two possible brides but Sophia apparently gained a great advantage since the second one was judged as: "bossy, authoritarian, despotic, irritable and vengeful" ("The Women of Heinrich Schliemann") Ackroyd uses other Schliemann's letters to Vimpos to create the beginning of their relationship, let us compare: "He also asked several questions. What property does Colonel Chrysanthis possess? How old is he and how many children does he have? How many male and how many female children? How old is Sophia? What is the colour of her hair? Does she play the piano? Does she speak foreign languages and, if so, which? Does she understand Homer and other ancient writers?" (The Fall of Troy, 7) with: "What is Mr. Engastromenos trade? What are his possessions? How old is he and how many children he has? How many boys and girls? In particular how old is Sophia? What colour is her hair? Where does the family live in

44 Athens? Does Sophia play the piano? Does she speak any foreign language? Which one? Is she a good housewife? Does she understand Homer and the other ancient authors? Or does she completely ignore the idiom of our ancestors? Would she consent to move to Paris and to accompany her husband through his travels to Italy, Egypt and elsewhere?" ("The Women of Heinrich Schliemann") Thus, as we can see the basic facts about relationship between Sophia and Schliemann have real life basis. However, while the fictional Sophia is a strong woman who is eventually able to stand against her husband and leaves him, the real Sophia was a loyal wife who gave birth to two Schliemann's children, Andromache and Agamemnon ("Heinrich Schliemann").

Similarly to The Lambs of London, Ackroyd uses intertextuality to draw attention to older well-known works. There are several occasions in the novel when the Greek myths are reminded as the story of Phryxus and Helle in this example: "Do you see there, Sophia, that bay? That is where the princess Hesione was exposed to the attacks of the sea-monster sent by Neptune. Do you see the promontory of black rock? That is where Hercules saved her. There is the trench he built." (...) "You believe these stories, Heinrich."

"There is truth to them. We live in a hard age. An age of iron. We need these stories. We should give thanks that they survive." He went over to the rail and watched the seagull as they flew beside the boat. "This is the path that Helle and Phryxus took when they flew on the ram with the golden fleece. How I loved that story! They crossed the Aegean Sea, as we do, north-eastward. You did not know the region was so blessed? How could you know such things? Half the stories of the world begin here." (The Fall of Troy, 13)

On other places, references to Homer's Iliad are made, e.g.: "Homer mentions one particular tree, Professor." Leonid had been studying the Iliad, in Russian translation, ever since his arrival in Hissarlik. "It was by the great gates of the city." (The Fall of Troy, 39) Homer's Iliad plays an important part in the novel since it influences actions of the protagonists, especially those of Obermann. On one occasion he challenges Alexander Thorton, a British scientist who arrived to observe development of the excavations, to race around Troy: "Just as Hector and Achilles did.

45 They ran three times around the city in heroic contest. Shall we be heroes? Shall we follow their steps?" (...) "Tomorrow we will run where Homer has described. They began before the great gates of Troy, just beneath the wall. They passed the watch-tower and the wild fig tree before they came upon a wagon track and the two fair flowing fountains that feed the Scamander. They passed teh washing tanks, where we have found the stone cisterns. That is our course." (The Fall of Troy, 169-170) As another character, a Turkish supervisor, reminds, the story of Hector and Achilles had a very disturbing ending - "Hector was killed by Achilles, and his body was dragged across the dusty plain." (170) So, the usage of the story was symbolic because Obermann intended to remove Thorton. (The Fall of Troy, 173)

As presented in the previous paragraphs The Fall of Troy contains many examples of inter-texts which become essential parts of the story and behaviour of its protagonists. Linda Hutcheon comments on the use of inter-texts in postmodern writings: "one of the postmodern ways of literally incorporating the textualized past into the text of the present is that of parody. In John Fowles's A Maggot, the parodic intertexts are both literary and historical. (...) Post-modern intertextuality is a formal manifestation of both a desire to close the gap between past and present of the reader and a desire to rewrite the past in a new context (...) It uses and abuses those inter- textual echoes, inscribing their powerful allusions and then subverting that power through irony." (Hutcheon, 118) In this way Ackroyd uses the story of Achilles and Hector, two antic heroes and applies it, in quite an ironic way to the fictional story of two modern rivals. The same can be claimed about usage of the myths - they represent the heroic and great past but in the context of the novel and Obermann's deceits they lose their strength and sense.

It was stated in the previous chapters that the character of Obermann has many negative characteristics and his behaviour is unusual. The protagonists of historiographic metafiction, as Hutcheon claims, are often ex-centrics and defy the fictional world; the same applies to the real historical figures. (114) If we consider this phenomenon in The Lambs of London, we can find similar character in Mary Lamb, a lunatic and a murderess; the same kind of hero is William Henry Ireland.

46 Once again, this novel contains examples of wilful changes of historical data. We can suppose that some events were incorporated in order to make the story more attractive - consider the tragic death of Obermann, that is something which reality cannot compete. Moreover, as it was mentioned in the chapter on The Lambs of London, the change of known facts and events questions the basis of our knowledge of history; in the same way in which both Schliemann's and Obermann's lives are questioning our ability to distinguish the truth and the lie. If the mankind was willing to accept Schliemann's version of affairs, why couldn't we accept the Ackroyd's one? The quotation from the beginning of this chapters says that "we need these stories." Let us close the chapter about The Fall of Troy by claiming that the novel itself fulfils this need for story which is better than the truth - and it does it in the same way in which Heinrich Schliemann created his own stories.

4.3 The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Adopting Style

"Now that I have seen my life turn completely in its fiery circle, I must look upon my past with different eyes. I have played so many parts. I have lied to so many people - but I have committed the unforgivable sin, I have lied to myself. Now I must try to break the habit of a lifetime." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde)

The story of Oscar Wilde's last days depicted in his diary was published 82 years after the poet's death as the first of Ackroyd's novels and gained a great success. As Susana Onega mentions, it follows the literary tradition of the confession of a repenting sinner. The whole story is then imbued with Wilde's desire to spell out the truth and real meaning of his life to himself. (Peter Ackroyd, 31)

The power of the novel lies in Ackroyd's ability to persuade the readers that it is indeed Wilde who wrote the lines. The illusion is so perfect that is sometimes difficult to distinguish real historical facts from those which were created for the sake of

47 a good story. Following paragraphs discuss ways in which the author deals with history and how these techniques effect the overall impact of the novel.

As mentioned above, Ackroyd manages to create the impression of reality in the novel. Firstly, he does this with usage of well-known historical data starting with Wilde's childhood and describing his life with his parents and siblings. According to Wilde's biography ("Oscar Wilde online"), his mother, Lady Jane Francesca Wilde, was a poet and a journalist and his father, Sir William Wilde was a surgeon. Wilde had two siblings, an elder brother William and a younger sister Isola who died at the age of ten. In the novel, Wilde's relationship to his relatives are described as a basis of his complicated personality. While the relationship to his mother is depicted as positive: "To my mother I turned for comfort. On many evenings she would come to my bed and lie beside me, and then I felt a strange joy which, even now, disturbs me. (...) We were accomplices in a life which to both of us became a game." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 21) Ackroyd's Wilde also expresses warm feelings towards his sister and stresses the impact of her death: "She died when I was twelve. Often we would play together. (...) When she died I suffered from a grief so intense that it surprised even me. She was the only member of my family for whom love was not a cause of shame or embarrassment in me. When she died, that love in me died also: grief shakes us with ague, but it steadies us with frost also." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 22) On the other hand, Ackroyd's Wilde's relationship to the two male members of his family is described as rather negative. When he shares memories of his brother Willie, they are full of rivalry and envy on his brother side and he makes one interesting comment about his brother's sexual orientation: "I have always suspected that he harboured the same Greek inclinations as myself but that he was to weak to yield to them." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 21) While the relationship with his brother was problematic, he expresses pure disgust towards his father: "He was a most untidy and dirty man, given to snorting while holding one finger to his nostrils. While at table he would often pick his nails with an old quill pen which he carried in his jacket, and leave the dirt upon the cloth." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 22) This feeling of disgust is illuminated later in the novel when Wilde's mother confesses that Sir William is not his real father: "My mother, on that fateful evening told that my father was an

48 Irish poet and patriot who had died many years before; his name was Smith O'Brien. (...) His name is not unknown to me - he was one of those who suffered terribly for Ireland's sake and, when I recall the dignity he seemed to possess when I knew him as a child, I know also that it is the dignity of one who has failed." (30) Being an illegitimate child is taken as a reason for Wilde's unhappy fate: "When I lay like a wounded animal in my mother's house, on bail between my trials, she came to me weeping and told me that she held herself responsible for my fate and that the punishment I was suffering was for her own sin: that I was not Sir William's child." (29) Nevertheless, it was his parents who introduced him to the world of Irish folklore and fairy-tales - according to the real Wilde's biography his mother was a famous Irish poet and his father was a keen archeologist ("Oscar Wilde online") - Ackroyd's Wilde remembers his mother reading Irish ballads to him, which supported his patriotism. (20) There is an episode in which Ackroyd's Wilde mentions his father's interest in supernatural world and how did this influence his own life and work: "Sometimes, reluctantly, he would take me with him on his expeditions: he seemed to me then like an old man who had once wandered with the fairies and wanted to return to their fierce kingdom. (...) Sir William once took me with across the water to the island of Aranmore, that wildereness of broken rock with its strange hive-like dwellings. While Sir William rushed on our guide told me that, the year before, one of his children had been taken by the fairies. (...) I am inclined more and more to place my trust in shadowy, supernatural things. The beauty of belief lies in its simplicity - and I have come to understand that life is a simple, terribly simple thing." (22-23) As this passage implies, Ackroyd's Wilde considers his childhood to be a very important part of his life since the experiences he gained during it influenced the whole course of his life, his opinions in the last years of his life and his career as well. While describing his years at school, he reminds three important facts which he learned: "It was then that I learned the first secret of the imagination: an amusing fantasy has more reality than a commonplace truth. And another secret was revealed to me also: I made them laugh, and then they could not hurt me." (24) And finally, the third fact: "It is a mistake to reveal one's true feelings to the world, for then they are destroyed. I learned the lesson early, did I not?" (25)

Apart from the known dates and facts about the writer's childhood, there

49 are more historical facts contained in the novel: Wilde's exile in Paris where he writes his fictional diary, the trial which ends with his imprisoning for sodomy to his death on 30 November 1900. ("Oscar Wilde Online") Also, Wilde's journey to America is included, as well as his meeting with Walt Whitman. This is an extract describing the real circumstances of their meeting: "By the late 19th century, Whitman had achieved such fame, if not notoriety, that Wilde, while in America on his lecture tour in 1882, was eager to meet him. When Wilde asked the publisher J. M. Stoddart to arrange such a meeting, Stoddart wrote to Whitman on 11 January: "Oscar Wilde has expressed his great desire to meet you socially. He will dine with me Saturday afternoon when I shall be most happy to have you join us" (MS., Library of Congress) . Responding with a card, Whitman invited him and Wilde to his home in Camden, New Jersey, on 18 January between two and three-thirty in the afternoon." (...) For two hours, talk between the two poets ranged from London literary circles to the "superiority of the masses of people in America." After expounding on Aestheticism, Wilde asked for a response from Whitman, who reportedly said: "I wish well to you, Oscar, and as to the aesthetes, I can only say that you are young and ardent, and the field is wide, and if you want my advice, I say go ahead." ("Whitman, Walt") Compare this passage with the responding one from the novel: "When I met Whitman, therefore, I came to him not as a disciple but as an equal (...) Our conversation was affable and easy. Whitman had never travelled to Europe, so he had retained his perfect manners - but he had shrewdness, also, the shrewdness which saw the writer even then coming to birth within me. I told him that I had come to lecture to his countrymen on the Beautiful. "It seems to me, Oscar," he said, "that the beautiful is not an abstraction to make a gallop for, but really an effect of what you produce." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 55-56) As the novel further suggests, Acroyd's Wilde was deeply affected by his conversation with Whitman, which is also in correspondence with the real facts. ("Whitman, Walt")

Inter-texts are very common in the novel as Ackroyd's Wilde often makes comments on his literary ancestors or contemporaries or uses parables to literary characters, e.g. "I am Solomon and Job, both the most fortunate and the least fortunate of men. (...) I look like Mrs Warren but without, alas, the profession." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 2) These quotations are written with irony typical for the real

50 Oscar Wilde's writing style. Compare with these quotations from Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray: "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." ("Oscar Wilde Online") Moreover, Ackroyd's Wilde is also critical and ironic about himself, e.g. when he comments on his play Vera: "it was suitable only for the ears of the deaf. I cannot think of that play without embarrassment. There was poetry in but unfortunately none of it was my own. One can forgive Shakespeare anything except one's own bad lines." (46) As mentioned before, there are also comments on other authors, e.g. "I can of course begin this apologia with some confidence. De Quincey has done it, Newman has done it - some people say that even St Augustine has done it. Bernard Shaw does it continually, I believe - it is his only real contact with the drama." (5) As was mentioned in the previous chapters, we can distinguish between two types of inter-texts: literary and historical. While the extracts above can surely be taken as examples of literary inter-texts, there are also historical inter-texts. Consider this passage taken from San Francisco Tribune and used in the novel:

"HE HAS COME: OSCAR WILDE, THE FAMOUS AESTHETE, arrived on the Pioneer Train yesterday morning. The notorious poet and sunflower addict has come to spread the gospel of BEAUTY through our benighted community. He is six feet and two inches tall, has a large head and man-size. (...) When we asked his age, he said twenty- seven or thereabouts but he had no memory for unimportant dates." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 96)

On the whole, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde is based on real historical facts from Wilde's life and actually leaves only little space for manipulation with them, there are no changes to people's names as in The Fall of Troy or faiths as we can observe in The Lambs of London. On the other hand, the author of this thesis believes that the biggest manipulation is the novel itself since it pretends to be a real thing and substitutes a confession which Oscar Wilde could have written but he never did. Similarly to other Ackroyd's works, it questions the truth of historical facts and also the truth of its own (Hänninen, 15):

"You cannot publish this, Oscar. It is nonsense - and most of it is quite untrue."

51 "What on Earth do you mean?"

"It is invented."

"It is my life."

"But you have quite obviously changed the facts to suit your own purpose."

"I have no purpose and the facts came quite naturally to me." (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 160)

As Hänninen (15) further observes, Ackroyd suggests that it is not possible to transmit the truth, not even if we consider our own lives because it is always influenced by our personality and subjective perception of events. Hänninen (16) claims that Ackroyd's Wilde himself is uncertain what is true and what is just his own imagination and mentions the passage in which Wilde speaks about his ear injury which he suffered in prison: "I bear, also, the physical marks of that solitary confinement. One night, I awoke suddenly from sleep and my mother stood beside me. I rose from my bed, but I could not speak - she lifted her arm, as if to strike me, and with a cry of terror I fell back upon the floor and knocked my ear against the plank bed. No, that is not right. I fell upon the in the exercise yard. Have I not described this already? (...) I see my mother with her hand raised against me, and the same terror fills me. I feel myself falling upon the stony ground of the yard, and I am in pain. Which is the truth - will it be pain or fear that destroys me?" (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, 152-153)

To conclude this chapter, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde is not as innovative in working with historical facts and rewriting the history as the other works by Peter Ackroyd mentioned in this thesis. It centres more on work with language and adopting the style of Oscar Wilde, which is achieved as was proven in previous paragraphs. This, together with usage of known historical facts creates powerful piece of writing and, as Time Out claims at the back of the book: "Wilde probably wishes he wrote it."

52 4.4 Chatterton - The Praise of Forgery

"I will not wholly die, then. Two others have joined him - the young man who passes him on the stairs and the young man who sits with bowed head by the fountain - and they stand silently beside him. I will live for ever, he tells them. They link hands, and bow towards the sun. And when his body is found the next morning, Chatterton is still smiling." (Chatterton, 180)

Peter Ackroyd's Chatterton concentrates on Thomas Chatterton, English poet of 18th century who became most famous for faking medieval poetry and also for his unfortunate death at the age of eighteen. The novel follows three levels of narration: the first of them is Chatterton's, the second one is dedicated to George Meredith posing to Henry Wallis as dead Chatterton and takes place in the middle of 19th century. The last level tells story of Charles Wychwood, an unsuccessful poet living in 1980's London who is deeply interested in Chatterton and tries to uncover the mystery of his life. This is a very short summary of a novel which combines faiths of historical characters with fictional ones and (similarly to The Lambs of London) focuses on plagiarism and (once again) our ability/inability to understand history and find the truth. The following analysis aims to describe the most common techniques Ackroyd uses. The individual paragraphs are dedicated to the three levels of the story.

The novel starts with an extract from Chatterton's biography: "Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) was born in Bristol (...) at the age of fifteen, or sixteen, he composed the Rowley sequence: these were verses ostensibly written by a medieval monk, and for many years accepted as such, but they were the work of the young Chatterton who had managed to create an authentic medieval style from a unique conflation of his reading and his own invention. (...) in May 1770 he moved to a small attic room in Broke Street, Holborn. It was here on the morning of 24 August 1770, apparently worn down by his struggle against poverty and failure, that he swallowed arsenic. (...) An inquest was held and a verdict of felo de se or suicide was announced (...) Only one contemporary portrait of him is known to exist, but the image of the

53 "marvellous boy" has been fixed for posterity in the painting, Chatterton, by Henry Wallis. This was completed in 1856, and has the young George Meredith as its model for the dead poet lying in his attic room in Broke Street." (Chatterton, 3) So these are the basic historical facts which Ackroyd follows in the Chatterton's story with exception of some details and events, e.g. from Chatterton's last days in London. The major change Ackroyd does, however, is Chatterton's death. The previous quotation suggests that the case was closed as a suicide. Peter Ackroyd, nevertheless, comes up with another, even more terrifying theory - that Chatterton's death was an unhappy accident. Ackroyd's Chatterton "has caught a dose of the clap7 from the fair mistress of the house, Mrs Angell" (Chatterton, 149) and led by a recommendation of his friend he decides to use arsenic as a cure:

"The clap is nothing at all, Tom, nothing at all. Chatterton plainly show his relief as his companion goes on, but catch it now before it grows. Employ our illustrious London kill-or-cure."

"Kill?"

"No, a mere hyperbole. But it cures."

"And what is this famous antidote?"

"Arsenic and opium mixed together. The arsenic removes the contagion, the opium allays the sourness and the pain. It is the speediest removal in the world. You need only four grains of arsenic to one-dessert spoon of opium. Hurrah, finished, the clap departs. And all the while you will have had sweet opium dreams."

"And there is no danger?"

"No, no danger in the world." (Chatterton, 149)

Consequently, Chatterton believing that he cures himself actually accidentally kills himself by taking this medicine (or rather taking a wrong portion of arsenic because of drunkenness). The description of his dying is very detailed: "The saliva fills Chatterton's mouth, a river overflowing its precious banks. There is a pain in his belly like colic but burning so, my liver and spleen might roast in the heat. What is happening to me? He

7 gonorrhoea (author's note)

54 tries to rise from his bed, but the agony throws him down again and he rolls in terror to stare at the wall. Oh God the arsenic. He vomits over the bed, and in the same spasm the shit runs across his thin buttocks - how hot it is - and trickles down his thighs, the smell of it mixing with the rank odour of the sweat pouring out of his body. Everything is fleeing from me. I am the house on fire. Oh god the poison. I am being melted down." (Chatterton, 175) In his final agony, Ackroyd's Chatterton sees visions: Thomas Rowley, the medieval monk whom he created as the author of his poems and he also meets George Meredith and Charles Wychwood: "Falling, and Chatterton is walking down a stairway of old stone where he passes a young man ascending on the other side; and he is always walking, always passing him and the young man always shows him the puppet which he holds in his left hand. Falling and Chatterton is standing beside a young mand with his head bowed in pain; there is a fountain behind him, and the fountain is playing for ever." (Chatterton, 179-180) The three levels of the novel are connected via these visions which all three main protagonists can see from time to time.

George Meredith's part of the story focuses on painting of the picture of Thomas Chatterton. The main protagonists apart from Meredith are his wife and painter Henry Wallis. Nevertheless, while the painting connects lives of these three people, its creation serves only as a background for a complicated relationship between Mary Meredith and her husband which finally lead her to leave him and start living with Wallis. This episode is based on real events. ("George Meredith (1828-1909) - A Brief Biography") The storyline with the painting shows Meredith's inner dilemma about posing as the dead poet and brings back the question of recognizing reality: "Yes, I am a model poet," Meredith was saying. "I am pretending to be someone else." Wallis put up his hand and stopped him. "Now the light is right, now it is falling across your face. Put your head back. So." He twisted his own head to show him the movement he needed. "No, you are still lying as if you were preparing for sleep. Allow yourself the luxury of death. Go on." Meredith closed his eyes and flung his head against the pillow. "I can endure death. It is the representation of death I cannot bear."

"You will be immortalised."

"No doubt. But will it be Meredith or will it be Chatterton? I merely want to

55 know."(Chatterton, 4)

Ackroyd's Meredith even dreams about Chatterton and his dream is the same as the vision of the dying poet: "Did I tell you, Henry, that I dreamed of Chatterton the other night? I was passing him on some old stairs. What does that signify?"

"I believe stairs are an emblem. Was that your word? Stairs are an emblem of time."

"But why was I showing him a puppet?" (Chatterton, 107)

These episodes with visions and dreams give the story a touch of mystery, which is even more stressed in the storyline of Charles Wychwood.

Charles Wychwood is, as the other two main characters, a poet. As the other two, he also desperately wants to become famous. Unlike Chatterton and Meredith, however, he is a fictional character. In fact, this storyline is the only one not based on historical facts and it rewrites history most significantly. The central motive of the story is a search for origin of a mysterious painting which is believed to show middle-aged Chatterton. Charles Wychwood comes across this painting and becomes deeply obsessed with it and after some research he comes to a conclusion that Chatterton "faked his own death". (Chatterton, 19) He makes a plan to write a book about his findings, which would finally help his family to overcome financial difficulties. Unfortunately, Charles is seriously sick and his sickness is accompanied by strange visions in which he meets a young red-headed man, who appears to be Chatterton: "He was sitting beside a small fountain, leaning his back against its round basin. (...) When he awoke he notice that the leaves had been swept away, and a young man was standing beside him. He had red hair, brushed back. He was gazing intently at Charles, and he placed his hand upon his arm as if he were restraining him.

One said, "And so you are sick?"

The other replied, "I know that I am."

He was about to rise. "No. Not now. Not now. I will come to see you again. Not now." (Chatterton, 37)

The scene at the fountain is then repeated in Chatterton's vision before he dies as

56 described in the previous paragraphs. Charles, Chatterton and Meredith are connected through Wallis' painting. In his search for Chatterton's fate, Charles comes to the Tate Gallery with his son Edward to see it. It is the first time he realizes a strange connection between him and the man in the picture: "And, at last, he looked at Thomas Chatterton. But was there someone now standing at the foot of the bed, casting a shadow over the body of the poet? And Charles was lying there, with his left hand clenched tightly on his chest and his right arm trailing upon the floor. He could feel the breeze from the open window upon his face, and he opened his eyes. He was able to look up and, her face in shadow beside the garret window, he saw Vivien standing above him. She was crying." (Chatterton, 102) Later in the novel, Charles dies in a hospital and here he has another vision in which he becomes fully connected with Chatterton: "Charles reached down with his right hand and touched the bare wooden floor; he could feel the grain of the wood, and with his fingers he traced the contours of the boards. His knuckles brushed against something, something light like the skeleton of a mouse or a dead bird, something gathering dust, but then he realised that was a piece of the rough writing paper he had been using. There was another piece beside it, and another; these were the torn fragments of the poem which he had been writing." (Chatterton, 130) Compare now this passage with an extract from information about Chatterton at the beginning of the novel: "When the door of his room was broken open, small scraps of paper - covered with his writing - were found scattered across the floor." (Chatterton, 3) Apart from being attractive for the reader, these supernatural episodes give Ackroyd a chance to connect the three levels of narration until the final unification of the three main heroes (see the quotation at the beginning of this chapter). However, it is only after Charles' death when the mystery of the painting of older Chatterton is solved. Charles' friends out that the painting is a fake, as well as Chatterton's memoirs found in Bristol: "The memoirs had been forged by a bookseller who wanted to repay him in kind, to fake the work of a faker and so confuse for ever the memory of Chatterton; he would no longer be the poet who died young and glorious, but a middle-aged hack who continued a sordid trade with his partner. This was the document which Charles Wychwood had carried back with him." (Chatterton, 171) The painting itself is destroyed when a painter tries to uncover the first layer - and it shows

57 up that there are more paintings of more people, which makes it not one, but a multiple plagiarism. (Chatterton, 175-176) This implies that what Charles deeply believed in was simply a lie. Moreover, it strongly emphasizes the fact that we cannot be sure if something is true even if we have a physical prove for it - in this case the memoirs and the painting - and thus we can never be sure about history as well. As another character, writer Harriet Scrope mentions: "None of it seemed very real, but I suppose that's the trouble with history. It's the one thing we have to make up for ourselves." (174) Harriet is also another character connected with the theme of forgery. She is a writer and as it is revealed in the story, her most famous book was just a copy of another one. However, the main message concerning forgery in literature and in general which Chatterton brings is that it can be contributive, see as Harriet tries to defend herself facing her own conscience: "The experience of employing a plot, even though it was the invention of some other writer, had liberated her imagination; and, from that time forward, all her novel were her own work." (Chatterton, 78)

In Chatterton as well as in the other novels, inter-texts are used, e.g. Chatterton's poems:

"Since we can die but once what matter it

If Rope or Garter, Poison, Pistol, Sword,

Slow-wasting sickness or the sudden burst

Of Valve Arterial in the noble Parts

Curtail the Misery of human Life:

Tho' varied is the Cause the Effect's the same,

All to one common Dissolution tends." Sentiment, Thomas Chatterton (Chatterton, 147)

Also, George Meredith's poetry is mentioned:

"You like not that French novel? Tell me why.

You think it most unnatural...

Unnatural? My dear, these things are life:

And life they say, is worthy of the Muse." Modern Love. Sonnet 25. George Meredith

58 (Chatterton, 102)

In Chatterton, Peter Ackroyd employs multiple points of view, e.g. when Chatterton's fate is described at first from the "oficial" point of view, then it is interpreted by Charles and his friends and finally by Ackroyd's Chatterton himself. Linda Hutcheon considers multiple point of view to be one of the modes of narration typical for historiographic metafiction. The other one is "an overtly controlling narrator" - The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde is an example of it. Nevertheless, as Hutcheon reminds, none of them guarantees that past events are interpreted correctly (117). This was proved for The Last Testament (see previous chapter) and for Chatterton as well. Charles' version of events was based on forgery and completely wrong, therefore we are left with the official one and the one told by Ackroyd's Chatterton. It is very difficult to distinguish which one is correct because both of them are believable. We should, of course, rely on the official one as we have evidence for it but as was shown above, even physical evidence is not enough. How can we be sure that this is not a forgery as well? Thus, Chatterton puts our ability to know the past at stake and reminds us "of the need to question received versions of history." (Hutcheon, 115)

59 5 Conclusion

This chapter aims to give a brief overview of the structure of this work and to draw conclusion on gained information about historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels. The goal is to present similarities between individual novels as well as to point out differences between them.

Throughout working with four different novels by Peter Ackroyd it was obvious that there are certain characteristics concerning dealing with history which are common to all of them. In this section of the thesis, these characteristics are summed up and a final conclusion on Ackroyd's dealing with history is presented.

Firstly, all of the novels are fully or partially concentrated on historical figures. While in The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, the historical figure plays the major part and is also the narrator, in Chatterton the historical figures (Chatterton, Meredith, Wallis etc.) are on the same level with the fictional ones (Charles, Harriet) as they all presented in one of the three levels of narration. The same applies to The Fall of Troy where characters from history (Schliemann, Sophia) are accompanied by number of fictional characters which play equally important part in the story, e.g. the character of Schliemann's rival Alexander Thorton. As for The Lambs of London, majority of the main characters here are historical figures and they play predominant part in the novel.

Secondly, there is a certain amount of rewriting the history in each of the novels. The most significant changes were made in The Lambs of London where Ackroyd creates relationships of people who never met in reality (the Lambs and William H. Ireland) or involves characters who could not meet because they lived in different times (de Quincey). He also changes their faiths while still keeping the best known historical facts as they are, e.g. the murder of Mrs Lamb or Ireland's forgeries. On the other hand, the least divergence from the history is done in The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde. Of course, there are some details of Wilde's everyday life and opinions which must have been made up but on the whole, the plot follows the dates and events of the real Wilde's life. Dealing with history in The Fall of Troy is similar to The Lambs of London but the changes are not so significant. There is a slight change of names

60 included, e.g. Obermann vs. Schliemann and some changes of plot to make the story more exciting and attractive. However there is no disruption of time as in the first novel mentioned above and as in Chatterton where this a significant feature. There are three levels of the story, each of them happening in different time and although their protagonists never meet in person, they are connected through a supernatural tie. The involvement of mystery makes Chatterton the most extraordinary of the four novels. Moreover, there is a part with purely fictional characters only, which gives Ackroyd freedom to not be dependent on history at all. Nevertheless, the basis of the story is made of real historical data as in the previous examples. The common feature of all four novels is that they tend to break our belief in what we know as the real history and reminds that we should keep questioning it.

Thirdly, there are inter-texts used in all of the novels. As was mentioned in the previous chapters, there are two types of inter-texts: literary and historical. The example of the latter one can be the newspaper articles in The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde since they show us a real piece of history. Other novels contain numerous examples of literary inter-texts. In The Lambs of London there are even changes to literary inter-texts, consider the changes to the plot of Vortigern for example. As for the other books, The Fall of Troy contains inter-text references to Greek myths, Chatterton uses quotations of the main hero's poetry. Apart from using historical inter-texts in The Last Testament, there are references to other literary works of the relevant period as well as to their authors.

Fourthly, the mode of narration in The Lambs of London and The Fall of Troy is the third person narrator and as it was mentioned in previous chapters, this narrator is "overtly controlling". The same fact applies to The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, while in this case, the first person narrator is employed. Chatterton is different because there are multiple points of view presented, while the third person narrator is used there.

Fifthly, there is one topic which connects three of these novels - forgery. It is somehow presented in The Lambs of London, The Fall of Troy and in Chatterton. While Ackroyd's Ireland, Chatterton or Harriet Scrope forges literary works, Heinrich

61 Obermann fakes finds from excavations and his own life story. The Last Testament makes a difference. There are no examples of forgery, nor it is discussed as in Chatterton. However, we can claim that the novel itself is a fake - something what Wilde never created was written and could be taken as his work by mistake. From this point of view, all four novels are interested in forgery. To conclude, in all of them forgery is not judged but, if not praised, taken as a positive phenomenon.

Finally, one of the aims of this diploma thesis was to determine if there are any differences in Ackroyd's dealing with history depending on the time when individual novels were written. The author of this thesis came to conclusion, that there are no significant differences between the novels written in 1980's (The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde and Chatterton) and those written in the 21st century (The Lambs of London and The Fall of Troy).

In conclusion, historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels is approached in a way typical for historiographic metafiction which is the most suitable description of contemporary novels dealing with history. All the features of historiographic metafiction mentioned in chapter 2.3 are present in all four novels and correspond with the findings listed in conclusion.

62 6 Summary

The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyse historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels, namely The Last Testament of Oscar, The Lambs of London, The Fall of Troy and Chatterton. The thesis consists of an introduction part which is theoretical and focuses on history in post-modern fiction and on the author of the novels. The theoretical part is based exclusively on secondary sources. The second part of the thesis is analytical. Chapter four aims to analyse individual novels, to choose phenomena relevant to the topic and to compare the novels. This chapter is based on primary as well as secondary sources. The final chapter of this thesis is dedicated to conclusion based on pieces of knowledge gained throughout the analysis. The conclusion is divided into several subcategories which cover the most significant and important features of all novels and draws final conclusion on historicity in Peter Ackroyd's novels.

Resumé

Cílem této diplomové práce je analyzovat historicitu v románech Petera Ackroyda, konkrétně The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, The Lambs of London, The Fall of Troy a Chatterton. Práce sestává z úvodní části, která je teoretická a zaměřuje se na historii v postmoderní literatuře a také na autora zkoumaných románů. Teoretická část je založena výhradně na sekundárních zdrojích. Druhá část práce je analytická. Kapitola čtyři si klade za cíl analyzovat jednotlivé romány, vybrat jevy, které jsou relevatní tématu a srovnat romány. Tato část je založena jak na primárních, tak na sekundárních zdrojích. Poslední kapitola je věnována shrnutí na základě získaných poznatků. Shrnutí je rozděleno do několika částí, které pokrývají nejvýznamnější prvky všech románů a prezentuje závěry týkající se historicity v románech Petera Ackroyda.

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